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Revlon CIO David Giambruno recently shared his story about how the global cosmetics maker has been using Microsoft Dynamics, and as a result, realizing millions of dollars in savings by consolidating its worldwide resource planning.

Giambruno said Microsoft Dynamics ERP is giving Revlon deeper insight so the company can operate with agility, exceed consumer expectations, and build loyalty. Giambruno appreciates the deeper insight because, as the CIO, he is charged with empowering Revlon's COO, CFO, CEO, and chief scientist with the information they need in the context that they need to make good decisions to grow Revlon.

"My first big job is to turn data into information that's actionable by the business teams," he said. "The second big idea is for all Revlon employees to make the systems work for them and not have them work for the systems."

With Microsoft Dynamics, Revlon has been able to collapse 21 enterprise resource planning systems into one. That means Revlon employees all over the world are working off one core ERP system. Giambruno called it a whole new dimension for Revlon. Through Revlon's internal cloud, the company can make information available anywhere in the world, on any device.

Profitability Rises

In addition to Microsoft Dynamics ERP, Revlon is using Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Business Intelligence. SharePoint serves as the company's reporting platform. With this system in place, users can self-define their own reporting and they can publish their own reports with key performance indicators to the mobile device of their choice.

"The real benefit was the ability for all our business teams around the world to have the same set of information to collaborate on and communicate about," Giambruno said.

"I would ask you to look at Revlon's financials. The past two years have been the best years Revlon has ever had. I think we've made roughly a half a billion dollar change in the profitability to our shareholders over the last three years. You are seeing the effect of collaboration capability. It's the system coming online and helping."

Empowered through Collaboration

Microsoft has said its vision is to empower retailers with complete solutions for point-of-sale multichannel management, store operations, e-commerce, merchandising, financials, supply chain and more. That's a mouthful indeed, but when you break it all down, it's about giving manufacturers and retailers the information they need to be successful. And Revlon, with its multi-million dollar savings, serves as a great example of Microsoft's vision coming to fruition.

"The speed of beauty and glamor is unforgiving," Giambruno said in a video. "What's the next season? What's the next set of products? Revlon's differentiator is mass merchandising, working with our distribution, working with our sales channels."

Ultimately, as Giambruno pointed out, two keys to success have been finding solutions that effectively turn raw data into information that's actionable by the company's business teams, and having systems that work effectively for Revlon's employees -- giving them the information they need, when and how they need it, anywhere in the world, and on any device.